''Escape from Singe's Castle'', also known as ''Dragon's Lair Part II - Escape From Singe's Castle'', is a computer game for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the S ...

, Commodore 64 and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

home computers, released by

Software Projects Software Projects was a computer game development company which was started by ''Manic Miner'' developer Matthew Smith, Alan Maton and Colin Roach. After leaving Bug-Byte as a freelance developer, Smith was able to take the rights to his recent ...

in 1987. ReadySoft released it for the PC (developed by Bethesda Softworks) in 1989, and for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...

and Atari ST in 1990 and 1991, respectively. An

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari S ...

version was released in 2022. The game is sometimes referred to as ''Dragon's Lair II'', but is not the official arcade sequel '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp''.

Gameplay

Players control Dirk the Daring, the player character from ''

Dragon's Lair ''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television a ...

'', who has returned to the lair of Singe the dragon in order to claim a pot of gold (to save

Daphne Daphne (; ; el, Δάφνη, , ), a minor figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater. There are several versions of the myth in wh ...

again in the 16 bit version). Singe has laid traps throughout his lair, forcing players to guide Dirk across a number of differently themed screens in order to steal the gold and escape. In the 8 bit versions there are eight different levels.

Development

had licensed the

Coleco Adam The Coleco Adam is a home computer and expansion device for the ColecoVision released in 1983 by American toy and video game manufacturer Coleco. It was an attempt to follow on the success of the company's ColecoVision video game console. The Ad ...

version of ''Dragon's Lair'' to be released on 8-bit home computers, but due to the limitations of memory size and media space very few scenes could be contained in the conversion. Therefore, a second game entitled ''Escape from Singe's Castle'' was created to contain some of the missing scenes. Some retained the original control method of only allowing a directional movement at the right time. Other sections had a smaller, more controllable Dirk. The Commodore 64 cassette version features the same loading system as the original ''Dragon's Lair'' conversion - the next game level loads while the player attempts the current level. The Amiga version had a hard disk install option that supported the first ''Dragon's Lair'' conversion; a user that owned the first and second games could install scenes from both, resulting in a single bigger game. The American Commodore 64 version had a two-sided disk, with the first ''Dragon's Lair'' on the other side of the disk (however, the front cover only showed the name ''Dragon's Lair''). An

version had reportedly been completed by ReadySoft and scheduled to be released in 1991 (manuals from other ports list detailed IIGS-specific loading instructions and features) but was never publicly released. In 2022, decades later with the original ReadySoft port still missing or lost, Brutal Deluxe created and released a new Apple IIGS port based on the PC version.

Reception

Allen L. Greenberg reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

'', and stated that "''Dragon's Lair II: Escape From Singe's Castle'' is an odd creature, an exceptional program which suffers from uninteresting game-play."

Reviews

*'' Amtix!'' (Apr, 1987) *''

Computer Gamer ''Computer Gamer'' was a video game magazine published in the United Kingdom by Argus Specialist Publications, covering home gaming from April 1985 to June 1987. It was a colourful relaunch of the failing magazine '' Games Computing'', a mo ...

'' (Mar, 1987) *''

Zzap! ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...

'' (Feb, 1987) *''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

'' (Jul, 1990) *''

Commodore User ''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''V ...

'' (Feb, 1987) *''

Popular Computing Weekly ''Popular Computing Weekly'' was a computer magazine in the UK published from 1982 to 1990. It was sometimes referred to as ''PCW'' (although that abbreviation is more commonly associated with ''Personal Computer World'' magazine). Overview T ...

'' (Jan 29, 1987) *''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History Th ...

'' (May, 1987) *''

ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) ''Aktueller Software Markt'' (literally ''Current Software Market''), commonly known by its acronym, ''ASM'', was a German multi-platform video game magazine that was published by Tronic-Verlag from 1986 until 1995. It was one of the first magazine ...

'' (Feb, 1987) *''

Tilt Tilt may refer to: Music * Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992 * Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993 * Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979 Albums * ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981 ...

'' (Jun, 1987) *''Happy Computer'' (Mar, 1987) *''

'' (Jul, 1990) *''

Amiga Computing ''Amiga Computing'' was a monthly computer magazine of a serious nature, published by Europress and IDG in both the UK and USA. A total of 117 issues came out. The games section was called Gamer, although later ''Amiga Action ''Amiga Action' ...

'' (May, 1990) *''

The Games Machine ''The Games Machine'' is a video game magazine that was published from 1987 until 1990 in the United Kingdom by Newsfield, which also published '' CRASH'', '' Zzap!64'', '' Amtix!'' and other magazines. History The magazine ran head to head w ...

'' (May, 1990) *''

'' (Apr, 1990) *''

'' (May, 1990) *''

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usu ...

'' (Jun, 1990) *'' The One'' (Apr, 1990) *''Génération 4'' (Apr, 1990) *'' Games-X'' (Nov, 1991) *'' ST Format'' (Feb, 1992)

References

External links

*
Escape from Singe's Castle at Lemon64

Escape from Singe's Castle at World of Spectrum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escape From Singe's Castle 1987 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Apple IIGS games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Dragon's Lair Classic Mac OS games Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games Bethesda Softworks games Electronic Arts games Single-player video games Software Projects games